'Virgin Media broadband is nothing like the service I signed up for'

A Virgin Media customer says she has endured five months of poor service after switching her broadband and landline services.

Olwen Hill from Bromley, Greater London, switched from TalkTalk to Virgin in May but has been dogged by problems from the outset.

“Installers split a doorframe when drilling through for wiring and flung the green cable over the shrubs in the front garden,” Ms Hill told Cable.co.uk.

“When they left, the landline wasn’t working. They said it was something to do with the box and it would be fixed.

“One month and multiple rantings via call centre and social media later the landline began to work but not before I was charged an extra month by TalkTalk, who didn't know I had switched to another supplier.”

Since then, Ms Hill has put up with “unimpressive” broadband speeds nowhere near the top speed of 50Mbps her service was advertised at.

Her connection is unable to cope with more than one device streaming Netflix and she often has to endure constant buffering or complete drop outs.

Ms Hill said her broadband speed "bears no resemblance" to what was advertised when she bought her package.

“This is especially galling as I’ve just had an email from Virgin telling me the good news that the broadband speed is going to be upgraded from 50Mbps to 70Mbps," she said.

"'More front than Blackpool' springs to mind."

She said Virgin’s customer service has left her “increasingly frustrated” as she was passed around various departments and forced to repeat herself.

“The levels of frustration when I was trying to get the landline connected were off the scale,” said the 58-year-old.

'Move heaven and earth'

“I was given the stock response of ‘your issues will be fixed within 24 to 48 hours, if not, give us a call back’, which I foolishly believed the first few times, but then I got increasingly angry as I was pushed from one department to another."

She said she "resorted" to using social media "in an attempt to get things moving" but even this had limited effect.

“I firmly believe that these mega-companies – Virgin isn’t the only villain in this piece – need to put customer satisfaction much further up their list of priorities, probably at the top," said Ms Hill.

“They take people’s money for a service, but that service should be as advertised and if it isn’t, they should move heaven and earth to make it so.”

A spokeswoman for Virgin Media said: "We apologise to Mrs Hill for the inconvenience this has caused. We have been in touch with her and are working towards a resolution."

Why do we need your postcode?

Once you enter your postcode, Cable.co.uk will perform a live lookup and check all the available providers in your area.

This ensures you receive accurate information on the availability of providers and packages in your area.